Choices and challenges: Cross‐cutting themes in archives and museums

To report on the October 2004 Choices and Challenges Conference and cross‐cutting themes in libraries, archives and museums.

This is a conference report and viewpoint article.

The Choices and Challenges Conference sponsored biennially at the Henry Ford brings together professionals from archives and museums including archivists, curators, and conservators. As such, it is one of the few conferences that enable an interdisciplinary dialog between the different professionals involved with the administration of cultural resources. The October 2004 conference featured talks on legal issues, education, and preservation. However, it is the cross‐cutting theses of visibility, advocacy, convergence and collaboration, and a focus on the researcher or visitor that made the conference compelling and thought‐provoking.

Libraries, archives and museums can benefit from learning about one another's approaches to the common challenges facing cultural institutions.

Introduces the idea of the convergence in the management of cultural institutions and in the education of professionals staffing these institutions.